BEYOND VERA STARK: HOLLYWOOD'S ... - Goodman Theatre

IN THE ALBERT
Vera Lula Stark* (1910-1973?) was
born in South Brooklyn to Hattie and
Lewis Stark, popular performers on the
black vaudeville circuit known as TOBA
(Theater Owners Booking Association).
Vera’s maternal grandmother was the
legendary music hall singer and contortionist
Ida “burnt pretzel” McCleary.
When Vera was five years old she joined
the family act on the road, where she
competed for the spotlight with her cousin,
a talented tap dance sensation. Vera
was a standout performer, yet the Stark
family was never able to achieve mainstream
success. They lived from hand
to mouth until Lewis Stark was banned
from the circuit for pistol-whipping a
notoriously corrupt white theater owner
who owed him money.
In the mid-1920s, Vera fled to
Hollywood along with a wave of talented
African American vaudeville performers
from around the country in search of
work in the emerging talking pictures.
For several years she appeared as an
uncredited extra in numerous shorts,
and found herself taking on odd jobs to
make ends meet, including working as
white actress Gloria Mitchell’s maid.
Who Was Vera Stark?
By Carmen Levy-Green*
a year in the life of two slave sisters in
New Orleans: Marie, the beautiful and
whimsical octoroon prostitute who falls
hopelessly in love with a white Southern
planter; and steadfast Tilly, her devoted
servant and companion. The novel was
originally conceived as an indictment
of slavery and the caste system in the
deep South. It was even viewed by
some during that period as a provocative
anti-slavery narrative. Cited as vulgar
and unseemly, The Belle of New Orleans
was publicly burned in front of the state
capital in Louisiana on June 16, 1853
and subsequently banned throughout
the South by politicians threatened by
its sexual and racial politics. Yet, inconceivably,
the book went on to become
an underground sensation, spawning
popular theatrical spectacles that toured
the nation in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth century.
Gorgeous, self-possessed, immensely
talented and hopelessly self-destructive,
Vera continued to work on and off until
1973, but she would never match the
success, promise or fame found in her
first film, The Belle of New Orleans.
In her private life, Vera was plagued by
misfortune. She had two unsuccessful
marriages, the first to Leroy Barksdale,
a popular trumpet player with the Petie
Owens Orchestra. During an infamous
performance at the Humming Bird
Ballroom, a white heckler repeatedly
shouted racial epithets at Barksdale. He
snapped, and in his rage inadvertently
beat the heckler to death with his trumpet.
Vera stood by Barksdale throughout
the highly publicized trial, but at the
urging of her creative representatives
she ended the relationship in order to
save her flagging career. But the scandal
was to follow her for many years. In
1952, Vera married middle-weight prize
fighter Dortch Ross. It was a tumultuous
and sometimes violent relationship,
and during their short-lived marriage she
began drinking heavily. Alcohol and prescription
medications would become her
constant companions, costing her roles
and burning many bridges in Hollywood.
In the late 1960’s and early ’70’s,
legendary agent Scottie Hudson tried
to revive Vera’s career. Finally, after a
number of very lean and difficult years,
he booked her an engagement at the
Folies Bergere in Las Vegas. During
the now infamous performance, Vera
stripped naked in the middle of singing
“Heat Wave” and was arrested for public
indecency. A week later she disappeared
without a trace.
A maid, a coat check girl, a down-andout
blues singer, Vera, like an entire generation
of African American actresses,
was a ubiquitous though often uncredited
presence on the silver screen. Vera
flew just under the radar, and her talent
was squandered on mediocre roles in
forgettable films. Racism in Hollywood
robbed Vera of a career, but also robbed
audiences throughout the world of
access to her shining talent.
Vera’s big break came in 1933, when
famed Hollywood director Maximillian
Von Oster gambled his career on a film
adaptation of a little-known Southern
novel called The Belle of New Orleans,
written by Bernard St. Simon in 1852.
The novel, a classic melodrama, follows
*See note on page 3.
UPPER LEFT: Vera Stark as a young girl. LEFT: Leroy
Barksdale.
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